Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Will new inquest bring justice for Jeremiah?

THE long-sought second inquest on the death of student Jeremiah Duggan is to open next Tuesday at Barnet coroners' court, in north London. Jerry was killed in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he had gone to attend what he thought was a peace conference to oppose the war on Iraq.

His body was found by the autobahn just outside town, on March 27, 2003. German police accepted that he had run out into the motorway and been struck by two vehicles.

But a London inquest in 2004 rejected a suicide verdict, after hearing from the Metropolitan Police that the organisers of the Wiesbaden conference, the Schiller Institute, were a front for the political cult led by the American, Lyndon LaRouche. Hours before his death Jeremiah Duggan had 'phoned his mother saying he was in "big trouble" and wanted to be rescued. The coroner ruled that the student had been in a "state of terror" when he died.

However it was left to the Duggan family and friends to campaign for a full and fearless investigation into Jerry's death. The evidence they gathered with the help of professional experts pointed to a very different picture than that accepted by the German authorities, even as to whether Jerry was killed by the two vehicles, or elsewhere, and his body brought to where it was found.

The LaRouchites meanwhile have claimed variously that the British student was on drugs, or some kind of spy, and that the allegations of suspicious death were part of a high-level conspiracy against them involving British and US government figures, and the Tavistock clinic in London.

At a hearing in the High Court in London last month the Duggan family won their case for a new inquest. Before it can be held the process of gathering the facts and making the enquiries takes place and only then does the Coroner hold a full Inquest and give a verdict. The official opening of the Inquest will start the process and be presided over by the North London Coroner Mr Andrew Walker.

After the official opening relevant matters can be discussed in preparation for the initiation of a full fact finding enquiry into the cause and circumstances whereby Jeremiah met his death. It is not a criminal trial nor will any guilty party be blamed. But Lyndon LaRouche, who from the start opposed any full investigation, has written to the Coroner to become an "interested party."

In April 2010 Judge Elias and Mr Justice Aikenhead were presented with legal witness documents which provided new information about how Jeremiah was in the offices of the LaRouche Executive Intelligence Review prior to his dead body being found on the road and that Jeremiah was seen as the enemy and a spy and hunted down . This information together with other reports led the two Judges in the Royal Court of Justice to state that “in the interest of Justice” a fresh Inquest should be held.

In Germany, where the Wiesbaden prosecutor had ruled that no one else but Jeremiah Duggan himself had been responsible for his death, a spokesman for his office stressed again in March last year that there was no evidence linking the LaRouche movement to the young man's death. In February 2010 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rejected the Duggan family's request for judicial review of the decision not to reopen the inquiry.

The Duggan family and supporters say they welcome the start of a process of Justice and hope it will "set a precedent of how human life is to be valued whether at home or abroad, but also show how we are with Germany and France members of one European Community and committed therefore to assist one another in examining fully and fearlessly how Jeremiah met his death".

Yes, that is the LaRouchite line.But no explanation has been given as to why Jeremiah, a cheerful, successful student, should have committed suicide in this strange way, whereas enough evidence has been produced to raise serious questions as to how and why he died.That is why the courts have finally agreed to a new inquest after determined campaigning by Erica Duggan and family and friends. If the British state and the courts were engaged in a conspiracy against Lyndon LaRouche this has taken an awful long time to get this far. And if LaRouche and his organisation are totally innocent, one might ask why they did not seek a full investigation themselves as to how and why a young man who had come to their conference and been due to attend a cadre school should have met his death? Wouldn't any genuine anti-imperialist organisation be concerned over this rather than trying to shrug it off - and relying on the German police?And why would an organisation with nothing to hide be worried about an inquest? It is not even a criminal prosecution yet, but nor is it a "so-called inquest", it is an inquest, and the LaRouche organisation has officially declared an interest, not dismissed it as a "total fraud".As a convicted fraudster, Lyndon LaRouche knows a bit about fraud. A lot of people also know a bit about Lyndon LaRouche, particularly people on the genuine Left in the United States who experienced the violent attacks from LaRouchite supporters.Perhaps they too are all part of a British or other conspiracy? But I don't think so, and nor do I think Jeremiah Duggan's family, some of whom I know, would allow their son's tragic death to be used for some kind of elaborate stunt just to undermine the talented Mr.Lyndon LaRouche.

Quick question for Howie G: How do you know? I don't believe you were in Wiesbaden at the time, or in a position to know who was or wasn't with Jeremiah (his name is Jeremiah), or what his state of mind was.

BTW, the German authorities have proven nothing. They have made one assertion, stonefacedly, throughout, and have declined to allow proof to come into it.

The British imperial courts, as you call them, are far more interested in what happened to Jeremiah Duggan than they are in what happens to Lyndon LaRouche.

Unless, of course, the investigation discovers a connection between the two.

Jeremiah Duggan didn't call his mother "hours" before he died. He actually called her just 45 minutes before he died. The confusion seems to be that most people don't realize that Wiesbaden time is one hour ahead of London time. When Erica Duggan says she got the call she gives it in London time which is when she received it. But her son was actually calling her in Wiesbaden time which is one hour ahead of London time.

Jeremiah Duggan did, however, call his girlfriend in Paris a few hours before he died so this might be the source of the confusion.

But the truth of the matter is that he tried to call his mother twice just 45 minutes before he died to tell her he was in big trouble and wanted to get away. For some reason yet to be determined, his call was mysteriously cut off.